The View From/Fairfield; A Radio Show's Lineup: Women's Sports Only

By TIM TOWNSEND

Published: March 17, 2002

TANDALEYA WILDER never liked being called a tomboy by the kids in her neighborhood in Western Philadelphia. In fact, she hated it.

''I remember thinking: 'I'm not a tomboy; I'm a little girl who likes to play sports,' '' she said recently. '' 'And if I could get any other girls around here to play with me, we wouldn't need you boys at all.' ''

So it may be a vindication of sorts for Wilder that she has grown up to create, produce and be the host of a public radio show called ''She Got Game,'' which is devoted entirely to women's sports.

For the last two years, the program could only be heard on Wilder's Web site, shegotgame.com., but last month she was given a half-hour time slot each Saturday at 2 p.m. on WSHU (91.1 FM) in Fairfield, where Wilder is also the station's news director. (The show can also be heard on WSUF-FM 89.9 in Long Island on Sunday at 7 a.m.)

Not only is ''She Got Game'' Connecticut's only radio show dedicated to female athletics, but those at WHSU said they believed it to be the only program of its kind in the country.

''Before we started looking into it, I wasn't aware that this kind of program didn't exist anywhere else,'' Tom Kuser, WSHU's program director, said. ''I would have thought something like it existed on the commercial side, but I actually wasn't completely surprised to find out it didn't.'

Donna Lopiano, the executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation, said, ''As far as we know, there are no other women's sports radio shows that run on a weekly basis like ''She Got Game.''

Wilder, 38, is adamant about making the point that her show will not be ''the typical jock show.'' She said she was aiming to create a program that has more to do with the social, economic and political factors in women's lives than with the sports they play.

''I knew when I came up with the idea I would have something of a niche, because there was nothing else like it out there,'' Wilder said. ''When I started asking people whether they thought a radio show about women's sports would work, so many told me now is the right time.''

Wilder said she came from a middle-class, non-athletic family in Philadelphia. She played a lot of sports with the boys in her neighborhood, however, and eventually tennis became her favorite sport.

She made the tennis team in high school and at Temple University where she majored in radio, television and film.

Wilder said she refined her radio skills by working at Temple's station, and by the time she graduated, said she had a vague notion that she wanted to be a sports reporter. But, in the mid-1980's, that option did not seem to be a viable one to her.

''Robin Roberts was just starting to do something with sports reporting then,'' she said, referring to the ESPN sports anchor. ''I had the inclination, but doing it for a living didn't seem all that realistic.''

Instead, Wilder said she worked as a news anchor and a reporter covering education and politics for a variety of public radio stations, including WHYY in Philadelphia and WNYC in New York City.

She said she began contributing feature stories to National Public Radio in the early 1990's and, in 1997, filed her first stories to NPR from the United States Open tennis tournament in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

In 1999, while working for Connecticut Public Radio, Wilder said she pitched an idea to her producers to commemorate Women's History Month: a one-time show devoted solely to women's sports.

She said listeners responded positively to the program, but it would take a move to different station and another three years before Wilder's ''She Got Game'' hit the public-radio airwaves last January. In the process, Wilder said she also had to battle with the National Basketball Association for trademark rights to the show's title

Dawn Staley, a guard for the Women's National Basketball Association Charlotte Sting, said: ''It's important to have a show about women's sports on the radio.

''There are so many sports radio programs that cater to men's sports and the only coverage that women's sports get on those shows are as punchlines to jokes,'' said Staley, who is also the head coach of Temple's women's basketball team and has been a guest on Wilder's show. ''To have something of our own is special.''

Lopiano said: ''You'd think sports programs would cover both men's and women's sports. But at best, 8 percent of sports coverage is devoted to women, and it's closer to 6 percent. If you want to fix this, you stop pressing for time within the context of men's sports coverage, and you start your own.''

Wilder said: ''Public radio listeners are sophisticated and intelligent, and they might not be all that into sports. But they are into good stories, and that's something I never have to worry about. There are so many great stories out there about female athletics.''

When Wilder landed at WSHU her bosses said they were familiar with her work at NPR and believed she would be able to pull off a feat many thought to be impractical.

''Depending on who you talk to, common wisdom says sports don't work on public radio,'' Kuser said. ''But we knew Tandi was looking to show people sports in a social context, to tell the story behind the headline, or maybe tell a story that would never make the headlines.''

Bill Littlefield is familiar with presenting a sports show for a public radio audience. His weekly one-hour show, ''Only a Game,'' first aired in spring 1993 on WBUR in Boston and is now syndicated each weekend to 138 stations around the country.

''The idea then was that a public radio sports show was an uphill battle,'' Littlefield said. ''Our feeling is that good stories, well told, will resonate with a public-radio audience, even with listeners who aren't big sports fans. If that's what Tandaleya is doing, she should be successful.''

So far, according to Kuser, WSHU's listeners seem to be still adjusting.

''We've had response from both sides,'' Kuser said after the fourth show. ''Some say, 'Gee this is an interesting approach to sports.' And then there are some who have responded the way you might think a public-radio listener stereotype would respond.''

But Kuser thinks once people listen to the show's segments -- a recent piece, for example, was ''Here . . . Now,'' a tribute to the Olympian Florence Griffith-Joyner, by the jazz composer Wynton Marsalis and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater -- they will understand that ''She Got Game'' is about more than sports.

''I take it as a huge compliment when someone says, 'I'm not all that into sports, but I like your show,' '' Wilder said.

She said she was developing a show dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Title IX, the 1972 ruling requiring schools to provide equal financing for women's sports. Wilder is hoping to become syndicated one day.

Lopiano said: ''What's important is not ''She Got Game,'' but what's behind it. Tandaleya is the tip of the iceberg, and what matters is finding the critical mass. Will she start a snowball effect by opening economic doors for others? It's one thing to let girls play, but it's another to let them play in the marketplace.''

Photos: Tandaleya Wilder, the host of ''She Got Game,'' with Tom Kuser, the program director at WSHU. Ms. Wilder, who is also the station's news director, created the sports show. (Photographs by Susan Farley for The New York Times)